Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe:, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

So what did you think of that? I think it's time for all of us to get together at the community level and brainstorm with our neighbors, colleagues, families and friends. We are all so very capable in so many diverse ways. We really don't need bankers and politicians "figuring out" how we should all live out our short little lives here on earth. It's not that difficult to get along with others. I'm sure as a town, as a city, as a community, we the people can figure it out. It's called helping one another. BACK TO BASICS folks. I don't have a problem with progress - can't stop it -- I know that. We can stall it for a bit though.

It's time to regroup.

Plenty of towns have preserved farm land, so FARM IT. Work with the local schools and get all these (ADD/ADHD) kids to plow the back forty -- might do them a world of good! We need to really teach our kids how to become more self-sufficient. Ours is the last generation that may have any experience in feeding ourselves. I don't have any personal experience myself, but I do have a few memories left in my head of my grandparent's farm and stories of how their neighbors helped each other build their homes. They all bartered for everything -- so simple.

Plenty of towns and cities have hospitals, medical clinics, doctor's offices, etc. Elect a local government body to figure out how to provide these services to everyone. And while we are at it, let's figure out how to make our "little dot" that we occupy less litigious. Shit happens, I know. Lawyers are necessary, but we need to take responsibility. We the people should be able to save ourselves.

Plenty of people I know are perfectly capable of making things too. How about we start making those things right here in our local communities. I'll trade you this for that -- simple. Start your own community banks. What the hell -- establish your own local currency!! Build a railroad! Collect rainwater! You get the idea. The term secede comes to mind....

Life doesn't have to be so complicated. Life is simple. The PTB are screwing it up. Let's get our assess out there and figure it out. Let's shift the focus from our "rights" to our "responsibilities". I'm so sick of the whining. I can't even stand the internet anymore. We should put our blogging to better use.